“I Will Have No Sacred Cow In My Government” – Says President Ernest Bai Koroma

He knew that protecting members from the law was the beginning of failure to his government, and to succeed as a government requires effective leadership, which is putting first things first, and effective management, which is discipline, carried out to the letter. For a good objective of leadership, is to maintain the rule of law to the fullest.

This remains the wish of the president of the republic of Sierra Leone Dr. Earnest Bai Koroma but this objectives are difficult to implement because,some of workers are only there for the inerest of their personal lives not for the development of Sierra Leone.

Thu the staff of Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) brings to his attention a sacred cow in the person of Abdul Aziz Kamara, the supposed outgoing Director General of SLRA. It is apparent from the personal file of Abdul Aziz Kamara, Director General of Sierra Leone Roads Authority SLRA that he turned sixty years on 10th March, 2016.

A retirement age of which other directors since the inception of the authority has retired from work, but this man has vowed to stay in office after sixty on the proviso that president will give him more time. A thing that had never happened in the history of SLRA, but Abdul A Kamara want to make a terrible history under the leadership of the President who has vowed to see to it that such things never happen in his rain, saying “there will be no sacred cow in my government’”.

The board through the Directorate of Administration is suppose to formally inform him of his retirement and ensure he quits the office of Director General of SLRA like they have been doing for all the past directors who reached sixty years in office, but his brother Hassan Augustine Turay who doubles as the Director of Administration and secretary to the board has refused to write the letter of notice of retirement to his cousin Abdul Aziz Kamara, OUTGOING Director General of SLRA either when the board has instructed him to do so.

This has always been the normal procedure of the board and has perpetually inculcated the indulgence through it secretary for all other staff who reaches the age sixty as stipulated in the civil service condition and end of service policy of the SLRA. It comes with a surprise to the staff of SLRA, in view of the fact that such a thing of more time for a director over age sixty has never happened in the history of the authority since it started in 1993, and therefore craves the immediate action of the president through the board of the authority to put an end to the misrule, mismanagement, misappropriation and corruption of Aziz A Kamara and Hassan A Turay now that the time has come and the staff of SLRA have been waiting for to see the authority delivered from such tyrant, tribalist, bad hearted, vindictive, fraudulent and worst director they have ever had since the authority started.

For in the words of B R Ambedkar, “Political tyranny is nothing compared to a social tyranny who defies society.” Such a tyrant who has defied the authority regulations and continue to damage the work of the president in the road sector must go, cried the employees of SLRA.

From an exclusive interview with a cross session of employees after a series of visitation at SLRA,I discovered that Abdul Aziz Kamara has criminally been diverted the limited resources of SLRA to companies in the road construction business and via several companies he himself have registered and award most of the contracts to, such as DYKE ENTERPRISE among other companies he owns.

In view of his commitment to criminally divert road funds to his companies, there has been several procurement bridge, violation of internal controls, contravention of accounting standards and several financial improprieties that has made it very difficult for the staff of SLRA to even carry out their normal duties since he took over from Munda Rogers his predecessor, due to his continuous diversion of funds including the administrative and operational cost to finance the contracts he awards himself, when the road funds runs out. Hence, this remains a gross mismanagement and misappropriation of public funds and constitutes a clear fraud and corruption that requires the intervention of Anti-
corruption in defence of tax payer’s money.

The combined code of conduct forbids the referee from becoming a player at the same time, and therefore a fraudulent practise by him to register a business and award himself contracts, and thus becoming a contractor and a Director General at the sametime, when his sole duty is to access the capacity and credibility of contractors and award contracts to the most suitable ones without fear or favour to ensure that those thatare capable to do the job are awarded and supervised.

The big question is: How can a man supervise himself? Or put simple, how can A A Kamara the director general supervise AA Kamara the Contractor? Notwithstanding, the financial misappropriations, he has also violated the corporate governance regulations, human resource principles and the ethical organisational behaviour by employing his concubine (Mariama Bangura) and mother of his son Abdulai Aziz Kamara Jr in the SLRA. In continuous contravention of human resource policies and administrative protocols, he has employed over fifty new staff without due human resource and administrative procedures.

As a matter of fact, there wasn’t any employment advert to all the employments he has made so far, or any job interview before hiring the new employees as required by the recruitment and selection process of the human resource policies.

Affirmatively and vividly from his NASSIT number (N2511195603100011), he was born in 1956, and thus have reach the NASSIT retirement age as well. Like George Bernard Shaw once said “Progress is impossible without change’’ Therefore, Mr. President, in your words there will be no sacred cow in your administration,the public do believe in your statement, and would like to see you manifest it in SLRA by virtue of the fact that A A Kamara has passed the retirement age (60 yrs) and remains a disappointment to the authority. For like Albert Einstein said “the measure of intelligence is the ability to take timely decisions”